Chinese Odyssey 2002
– The Emperor (Chang Chen) is desperate for the free-spirited life of a wanderer, and tries to escape ..
The Emperor (Chang Chen) is desperate for the free-spirited life of a wanderer, and tries to escape from the royal palace with his sister, the Princess (Faye Wong). He's caught and returned to his angry mother by the royal guards, but the Princess, disguised as a man, manages to escape. Meanwhile, King Bully (Tony Leung) has returned to his hometown, where he is widely despised for his bullying ways, to run a restaurant with his tomboy sister, Phoenix (Vicki Zhao). They have a very close relationship. In fact, King Bully mistakenly believes that he can read his sister's mind. When the Princess arrives in town, King Bully finds himself drawn to her, but, believing she's a man, decides that his attraction is some kind of empathy with Phoenix.
06 Feb 2002
Cantonese, Mandarin
In Ming Dynasty China, two pairs of siblings are destined for each other. But fate throws countless obstacles in the path of their happiness. One pair is high-born: the young Emperor and his sister Wushuang, both confined to the Imperial Palace and very much under the thumb of their mother, the Empress Dowager. The other pair is decidedly lowborn: the wanderer Li Yilong (known as King Bully for the way he terrorized the town of Meilong in his youth) and his sister Phoenix, who still runs a restaurant in Meilong. When both the young Emperor and his sister Wushuang contrive to leave the Palace and head south, they meet the loves of their lives in Meilong. But Wushuang has disguised herself as a man, and the Emperor is incognito. Numerous confusions, complications and misunderstandings ensue: genders and gender-roles are reversed, class differences prove hard to negotiate and identities and egos block the promptings of desire. It takes the interventions of a goddess to get everyone back on the right road. But it may be already too late to heal the wounds of disappointment and separation.
2 wins & 9 nominations.